Friday, March 11, 2011

a little while back someone asked about fabric food patterns on a facebook group I am on. Thus the watermelon I rencently made. Well, as I was looking at the archives to tatertots and jello, she posted about an etsy shop that had had some real fun felt food. I decided I wanted to make more for my boys, especially my middle child. I posted the blog post on fb and a friend sent me a bunch of links. The first link started with doughnuts, so I decided to do the same. In that blog, she had picked up a dunkin doughnuts bag to put them in. Well, we don't have a DD, but do have a KK (Krispy Kreme). So I decided the boys and I HAD to go buy a dozen so I wouldn't feel like a dork asking for a clean box. Because I use fleece a lot for costumes for my boys, I use my huge stash of fleece scraps.

The doughnut's tutorial was linked at the original blog to Skip to my Lou.

Since my middle child picked the St Patrick's Day doughnuts, at first I was going to go with 12 holiday themed doughnuts, but decided to do colors instead. He just turned 3, and does not have his colors straight, so figured I would do a double wammy and make them educational too :)

though, I have adorable crochet eggs, I plan to make more, and include some fleece ones too, just cause I can :)

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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

So, I should be cleaning or feeding my kids, but instead am surfing tatertots and jello. I did decide to multi task and upload my project I finished yesterday. i saw the idea on one of her check this out blogs. It is a fabric wreath.

This is the wreath as it was completed yesterday morning. It looked too plain for my liking so I ran back to Hobby Lobby, not sure if it being so close is a good thing!! But I took it with me and went to their St Patrick's Day area. There were so many different signs to choose from. In this style they had Lucky and Irish, I love Irish :) It was a perfect fit too. I then went and grabbed a roll of ribbon to hang it. Did not like the hanger showing. Am so proud of this one :)

Friday, March 4, 2011

Our homeschool group had a mardi gras shoebox float parade. I was not feeling very creative with how I would use a shoe box or cereal box to make our float. Luckily the English muffin box sparked a little bit and the inside box is a no boil lasagna box. I let my son choose the colors. he is not my crafty child, but I still think he did a good job. I did help him paint and changed the bead plan after he crashed and just painted them on. I asked him to pic a character for his float and I truely think he picked up the first thing he saw. A duck with a duckling on it's back. Must be a kid's float ;-) Oh my, I did not realize my son looked so out of it in this picture :( Here he is with his float before the "parade"

placing their "floats" on the stage. There were so many really neat ones. I should have gotten a picture of the taller girl's float. She painted a picture from Wicked and Phantom. She and her mom said that she is not a painter, her float was beautiful and the paintings were perfect!! Oh, and I just have to say I LOVE the HUGE American flag in the background :)

My son's float. His was in the more simple group, but I still like the way it turned out :)

My boys had a blast playing with something as simple as balloons. the younger two just ran around with them and the eldest played football with the other boys. Which ironically, or maybe not. The boys there played football, the girls sat and ate, talked, or did the crafts...Oh to have a girl...

At least my middle child loves crafts, so much that he decorates our walls for us without us even asking ;-)

Baby brother wanted in on the fun too, though he really just grabbed at things, hey, he tried :)

The extent of his plate, a brownie, and chocolate and cream cheese king cake!!

And this is why we have high chairs!! he was climbing all over. When we got home, I thought my middle child was getting something out of the car and as I come around it was my 16 month old climbing in the drivers seat to "play"

he is my kid, all about the chocolate :) Not sure if he ate more or if more is on his face...

My "nut job" (newest nick name for him, he is a hoot) decorating his mask. He loved the craft table.

My craft little boy!! he and I are going to have so much fun together as he gets older. need to try a finger painting recipe from Under the Sycamore, he finger painted our tv with peanut butter last night ;-)

Ok, I am loving all the St Patrick's Days projects I am finding online. My first is from Tattertots and Jello. i did my own take on it. For one I don't have a nice die cut machine and did not want to wait to get the cuts from a friend, and two, my son was painting a shoe box float for a mardi gras party today and there was left over yellow and green paint :) So I used black construction paper, and free handed our letters. The clover is a stencil. The green is harder to see on the camera, but I still kind of like the way it looks.

I am also an Irish Step Dancer. I began as an adult when my oldest was 5 months old. I am currently not able to dance because it is not available in my area and I miss it so much. I figured my hard and soft shoes, plus the headband I where at a Feis would go well with my decorations.

I am a colloector, I have never denied it. My parent's bought my the porcelin doll when they went to Ireland while I was in hs. My sister bought me the Barbie doll for my 28th birthday, and the smaller doll I actually got from one of those mail order book clubs. The pin is from an Irish shop in Manitou Springs, CO.

I actually have another Irish doll, and collection of Longaberger Irish baskets and a new Scentsy Irish burner. I can't wait to add more Irish Projects I have seen and incorporate these items into those projects too. My living room is my "Irish" room in a way since I leave the basekts out year round. I may do so with these. I am not 100% Irish, but it is my most dominate White European lineage :) Not sure if that is why, but I love anything Irish :)

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

So, after my post last night I played a little with my Creative Memories StoryBook Creator. I felt very limited and that I would have to pay $11 to add a different pallete, and with a room full of traditional scrapbooking stuff I did not feel I could justify that. Well, one of my class mates from highschool that sells CM was on FB this morning and she explained a lot to me!! Since I have the paid version I can use any digital scrapping elements. So, I found a free one that was perfect for my pictures, and with her help played around and here is my first one!! I did use a CM template that I had :) I love templates/sketches :)

I am also posting this to Apron Strings, another friend of mine sells scrapbooking kits. These are my secret to quickly scrapping traditonally, she does all the matching for me!! They are having a Birthday Celebration at their blog this month and the first challange was to use ribbon in a different way. Well, applying a digital ribbon is totally new for me, the whole page was pretty new. I played with my CM program 2 years ago, but didn't remember a thing, and did not use non CM elements :)

I am a traditional scrapper at heart. I love to go from a bunch of squares and pictures and have something created. But with the state of my house, my craft room especially, and the fact that I have over 2,000 printed photos to scrap, I have decided to do some digital scrapping of my photos I have not ordered. Close to My Heart has an awesome digital program for the digital beginner like me. No clue if I have a good photo editing program, no time to learn something new that is remotely compicated, and really just wants to get things done. With Studio J, you can play for free, though by becoming a member you get more options, pay less for prints and can either order jpegs of your projects or get them free with your print order. You also get free shipping once a month on up to 20 layouts (double page!! so 40 pages), page protectors, and they have exclusive specials.

Really it is quite simple to use. You crete a user acount and then you can play away. Nothing needs to be downloaded to your computer. You upload the pictures you want to use. You can add more later if you want to. Then you choose your paper packs. There are a lot to choose from and they all match the traditional paper that the company sells, plus some extras for members.Once you have picked your papers you choose your layout, there is drop down to say how many pictures you have. Keep in mind you can later change elements like I did on a few of mine where I needed more photo space.Next you pick one of six layouts wher they have taken the kit you have chosen and rearranged the papers used so that you can pick which one best matches your photos. Another thing you can change around once you get into your project if you would like.After clicking continue you, you drag and drop your photos. You can also rotate the pages or elements. If you want the paper facing another way you can change that, you can add or delete elements. But the pages also look great the way they set them up for you.Moving onto journaling and embleishments, you just click on he items, and can edit the text, change the color, have it fit your text to the space, and even change the text. Then you click on your embelishments, and choose the colors you want. They show you which colors are in the pack you are using, but you also can choose any color they offer.Finally you can move onto another project or click order. If you have missed an element they will give you a popup message in which you can fix it or if you don't care if that one shows up, you can ignore it. I highly suggest the membership. You pay half as much for your pages. $6 a page, which is competitive to other DS programs, and because you are not buying kits to give more options, but have automataic access to them all, in the end you are saving money.

So go check it out, it is very well worth it!! I have two friends that sell CTMH, please go through their websites if you do no already have a consultant.

About Me

Hi there, I am a proud military wife, and mom to 3 boys, and owned by 2 cats. I love baseball, the Chicago Cubs, USAFA Falcons sports. Collecting dolls, Irish step dancing, Coca Cola, reading, and just about any type of craft I can get my hands on.